New Israel Fund UK presents human rights awards to ‘mega-generators of hope’

The charity’s focus is to empower minorities and marginalised groups, defend democracy and human rights and advance partnerships between Arab and Jewish leaders and communities. Some of the best-known charities and NGOs it gets behind include Standing Together, Women Waging Peace and the Bereaved Families Circle, which brings together Israelis and Palestinians.

The dynamic MC for awards’ night was the embodiment of the charity’s vision - singer, actress and Palestinian Israeli activist Mira Awad, who, in 2009, joined Israeli singer Noa to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest with the peace anthem There must be another way.

While last night wasn’t quite a repeat of that, Awad’s powerful voice led guests in renditions of several songs, including a homage a Gazan composer, who was inspired by the constant sound of drones overhead “to turn something so ugly into something so beautiful”, said Awad.

She told the packed room: “The last two years have been devastating”. Nevertheless, she still held onto hope. “If we look around this room, we see the people who are working tirelessly to change this bleak reality.”

(l-r) NIF UK chair Noeleen Cohen, Avner Gvaryahu and Mira Awad (Photo: Yoav Picherski)[Missing Credit]

The first of this year’s human rights awards went to Avner Gvaryahu, a former paratrooper and the previous executive director of Breaking the Silence, an organisation of veteran soldiers who have served in the IDF since the start of the Second Intifada and, according to its website, “have taken it upon themselves to expose the public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories ... to bring an end to the occupation”.

The New Israel Fund said that Gvaryahu was chosen for the award as “his advocacy continues to spark vital debates about justice, truth and Israel’s moral compass”.

The second award went to Hanan Alsanah, a Bedouin lawyer and co-executive director of Itach-Ma’aki: Women Lawyers for Social Justice, who, said NIF UK, was being “recognised for over two decades of work advancing equality for Bedouin women and unrecognised villages in the Negev”. Her leadership had “brought education, healthcare and recognition to marginalised communities”, they said.

In a moving conversation with Awad, a previous recipient of the NIF award, who described this year’s winners as “two mega-generators of hope”, Gvaryahu said that October 7 had affected him deeply. “Many of the victims of the horrific Hamas attack were peace activists, members of the human rights community. Some of our members were murdered on that day. The horrific crimes carried out by Hamas were ones that are still shaking us”.

But, he said that as an organisation which focuses on how the IDF conducts its operations, “we feared what would come [in response to the terror attacks]”.

He said that some of the testimonies that he had heard from Israeli soldiers “are things that have to shake us to our core, that we have...to understand are affecting our souls as humans and as Israeli citizens and as Jews”.

He added that Palestinians “for millennia, are going to have to think about what [October 7] means for them, [and] what does that mean about them?”

While Gvaryahu said that many Israeli human rights organisations had disbanded in the wake of October 7, what encouraged him to keep campaigning was “our communities, people living through this. In the first 24 hours, a number of Palestinians I know from the West Bank whom we work with daily were reaching out, [asking]: ‘Are you okay? Are your family okay?’ These bonds are what propel you to continue challenging yourself.”

(l-r) NIF UK chair Noeleen Cohen, Hanan Alsanah and Mira Awad (Photo: Yoav Picherski)[Missing Credit]

Alsanah paid tribute to the New Israel Fund, saying that the award was not just for her, but “for every Bedouin woman who is dealing with political and social oppression - especially for the Bedouin women who have participated in our educational projects and invested in their daughters’ education and future. It’s also for the men who believe in our way and became our partners.”

She added that she was also receiving the accolade on behalf of “the people from the Palestinian side and the Israeli side, who, even after the [October 7] attack and the war, occupation and settlements, believe we can live together in a shared home and a shared society”.

New Israel Fund’s CEO David Davidi-Brown said the night was about “music and art and celebrating courageous activists”.

Citing the words of a colleague, Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a Palestinian-Israeli doctor who sits on the NIF board, who was working in an emergency room in Be’er Sheva on October 7, treating victims from the Hamas attack, Davidi said: “In the midst of all the blood and horror of that day, I realised the real divide is not between Arabs and Jews and is not between Israelis and Palestinians.

“The divide is between those who believe that violence is an answer to this conflict and those who believe in saving lives. The divide is between those who believe it is okay to kill people for a higher purpose and those who believe that every human life is sacred. It is this dedication to a just, safe and equal future for Israelis and Palestinians that makes me so proud to work for the New Israel Fund.”

NIF UK Human Rights Awards night (Photo: Yoav Picherski)[Missing Credit]

Davidi-Brown said that funds raised from last night and other events this week - £250,000 so far - would hopefully help turn “a fragile ceasefire...into a future of safety and dignity for everyone sharing the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea”.

He told the JC that “together with some exceptional gifts from earlier this year”, the NIF would be sending over £3.5 million “to our partners in Israel defending democracy and promoting peace and equality”.

Between speeches, guests were invited to take part in a number of activities, run by artists Jacqueline Nichols, Julia Vogl and Leor Roseman, whose only remit had been to create something “to humanise the conflict”.

Julia Vogl’s interactive artwork gave people a selection of different coloured badges they could wear, symbolising a range of feelings about Israel from “hopeful” to “heartbroken”. They were also invited to put different coloured stickers on a large map of the country.

Vogl, who describes herself as “a social sculptor”, said that she hoped her activity would spark conversations between guests “about identity and maps, and allow us to collectively build a map of the many people – who are complex people – who live in the region”.

NIF UK Human Rights Awards night (Photo: Yoav Picherski)[Missing Credit]

The evening attracted a diversity of ages, including many young adults and youth movement workers.

One man in his 20s, who asked not to be named, said: “In the time of this ridiculously fragile ceasefire, it is more important than ever, with elections coming up, that we in the diaspora are able to find the kind of Israel we want to see.

“As a queer Jew, it’s about finding the kind of Israel that will love me back as much as I love it. That means empowering the diverse population to be able to build the land as a Jewish state that I am proud of.”

Fellow NIF UK supporter Sheldon Stone, 70, who attends Orthodox shuls Beis Gavriel and Raleigh Close, both in Hendon, said: “The strength of Israel at the moment is its thriving NGO sector and civil society, striving to see a democratic and Jewish Israel, endorsing the vision of its Declaration of Independence and whose citizens live in social solidarity with each other and in regional peace, security and shared prosperity.

“from an Orthodox perspective, there is a lot to be said for such a future, and it is good to see some Orthodox colleagues here supporting the work of the New Israel Fund as an umbrella organisation of the best of civil society in Israel.”